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looking for a challenge? join our expedition to explore an ancient egyptian tomb.

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Explore the Egyptian landscape with our interactive map and learn about life and death along the Nile.

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Nile River, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. It has a length of about 4,132 miles (6,650 kilometres) and drains an area estimated at 1,293,000 square miles (3,349,000 square kilometres). Its basin includes parts of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and the cultivated part of Egypt. Its most distant source is the Kagera River in Burundi.

The Nile is formed by three principal streams: the Blue Nile (Arabic: Al-Baḥr Al-Azraq; Amharic: Abay) and the Atbara (Arabic: Nahr ʿAṭbarah), which flow from the highlands of Ethiopia, and the White Nile (Arabic: Al-Baḥr Al-Abyad), the headstreams of which flow into Lakes Victoria and Albert.

The name Nile is derived from the Greek Neilos (Latin: Nilus), which probably originated from the Semitic root naḥal, meaning a valley or a river valley and hence, by an extension of the meaning, a river. The fact that the Nile-unlike other great rivers known to them-flowed from the south northward and was in flood at the warmest time of the year was an unsolved mystery to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. The ancient Egyptians called the river Ar or Aur (Coptic: Iaro), "Black," in allusion to the colour of the sediments carried by the river when it is in flood. Nile mud is black enough to have given the land itself its oldest name, Kem or Kemi, which also means "black" and signifies darkness. In the Odyssey, the epic poem written by the Greek poet Homer (7th century bce), Aigyptos is the name of the Nile (masculine) as well as the country of Egypt (feminine) through which it flows. The Nile in Egypt and Sudan is now called Al-Nīl, Al-Baḥr, and Baḥr Al-Nīl or Nahr Al-Nīl.

The Nile River basin, which covers about one-tenth of the area of the continent, served as the stage for the evolution and decay of advanced civilizations in the ancient world. On the banks of the river dwelled people who were among the first to cultivate the arts of agriculture and to use the plow. The basin is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean; on the east by the Red Sea Hills and the Ethiopian Plateau; on the south by the East African Highlands, which include Lake Victoria, a Nile source; and on the west by the less well-defined watershed between the Nile, Chad, and Congo basins, extending northwest to include the Marrah Mountains of Sudan, the Al-Jilf al-Kabīr Plateau of Egypt, and the Libyan Desert (part of the Sahara).

The availability of water from the Nile throughout the year, combined with the area's high temperatures, makes possible intensive cultivation along its banks. Even in some of the regions in which the average rainfall is sufficient for cultivation, marked annual variations in precipitation often make cultivation without irrigation risky.

The Nile River is also a vital waterway for transport, especially at times when motor transport is not feasible-e.g., during the flood season. Improvements in air, rail, and highway facilities beginning in the 20th century, however, greatly reduced dependency on the waterway.

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Nile River | Delta, Map, Basin, Length, Facts, Definition, Map, History, & Location

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Nile River, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. Learn more about the Nile River, including its hydrology and its plant and animal life, in this article.

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Please note that unfortunately there is an error in this game. The part of the game that looks at canopic jars incorrectly states that in an Egyptian burial the jar in the form of the human-headed god Imsety contains the lungs and the jar in the form of the baboon-headed god Hapy contains the liver. However, Imsety should contain the liver and Hapy the lungs.

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Search Explore our places, collections and stories Close Chapter Please note that unfortunately there is an error in this game. The part of the game that looks at canopic jars incorrectly states that in an Egyptian burial the jar in the form of the human-headed god Imsety contains the lungs and the jar in the form of the baboon-headed god Hapy contains the liver.

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Visit the world of the ancient Egyptians and read about the Natural Resources of Ancient Egypt. Discover fascinating facts and information about the Natural Resources of Ancient Egypt. Interesting facts about the Natural Resources of Ancient Egypt, ideal for kids, research and schools.

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Egyptian Clothing Facts - Ancient Egypt for Kids

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Egypt has hot and dry weather because so much of it is a desert. The ancient Egyptians had to have clothing that was not too hot and allowed free flowing air to cool their bodies. Most of the clothes they wore were made of linen that was made from the flax plant.

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Visit the world of ancient Egypt and read about ancient Egyptian Animals including those that were sacred, domestic or pets. Discover fascinating facts and information about Egyptian Animals of ancient Egypt. Interesting facts about Egyptian Animals, ideal for kids, research and schools.

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Animals of Ancient Egypt - Facts for Kids

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Ancient Egypt had a number of animals that were local to the area and that they used as pets, farming, transportation, food and fat for cooking and oil. Because they conquered so many countries, they often brought in animals to their areas that were not 'native'.

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From the beginnings of the Old Kingdom until the end of the New Kingdom, the most powerful person in Egypt was the king and occasionally the queen. The king was known as the Pharaoh. This is an Egyptian word meaning 'great house'.

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Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing, numerals and mathematical problems using the ancient numbers and the Rosetta stone.

Champollion & Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing

Ancient Egyptian history covers a continuous period of over three thousand years. To put this in perspective - most modern countries count their histories in hundreds of years. Only modern China can come anywhere near this in terms of historical continuity.

Egyptian culture declined and disappeared nearly two thousand years ago. The last vestiges of the living culture ceased to exist in AD 391 when the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I closed all pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire.

Hieroglyphs were called, by the Egyptians, "the words of God" and unlike the simple elegance of modern writing systems, this early attempt at recording words, used a number of techniques to convey meaning. The picture symbols represent a combination of alphabet and syllabic sounds together with images that determine or clarify meaning and depictions of actual objects which are the spoken word of the thing they represent.

All writing systems probably evolved in this way but their original forms were lost as pictures were refined to a simple abstraction making writing an efficient tool for day to day business. Indeed, the ancient Egyptian Hieratic script served this function but the Egyptians deliberately preserved Hieroglyphs, in their original forms, because they believed them a gift from the gods which possessed magical powers. So they inscribed them on temple walls, tombs, objects, jewellery and magical papyri to impart supernatural power not for mundane day to day communication.

It was not until Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 that the wonderful artefacts of the Egyptians were seen in Europe and their ancient culture began to awaken from its long slumber. In 1799 a French captain named Pierre Bouchard discovered the Rosetta Stone which was carved with the same text in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, and three writing systems, hieroglyphic, demotic, and the Greek alphabet.

This was a tremendous piece of luck because it enabled scholars to unlock the hieroglyphic code and without the stone, we would know nothing of the ancient Egyptians, and the details of their three thousand years of history would remain a mystery.

The man who did more than any other to recover the words of the ancient Egyptians was Jean-François Champollion. He was an historian and brilliant linguist and by the age of sixteen had mastered not only Latin and Greek but six ancient Oriental languages, including Coptic, which was the late form of ancient Egyptian.

Champollion had a unique advantage over others in the task of cracking the hieroglyphic code. Because he understood Coptic he was able to translate the meanings of the ancient Egyptian words.

In the 1820s, Champollion established an entire list of Egyptian symbols with their Greek equivalents and was the first Egyptologist to realize that the symbols were not only alphabetic but syllabic, and in some cases determinative, meaning that they depicted the meaning of the word itself.

Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing

Hieroglyphic symbols are pleasing to the eye; everyone wants to see their name in hieroglyphs. But understanding the ancient script is difficult and, unless you're interested in the finer points of Egyptian religion, make tedious reading (the contents of hieratic papyri are far more fascinating). However, gaining some understanding of the hieroglyphic writing system can be fun as well as instructive. With a bit of study it is possible to quickly gain enough knowledge to recognise the names of pharaohs - useful if you are planning a trip to Egypt.
Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet Egyptian Mathematics Numbers Hieroglyphs Mystery of the Rosetta Stone Egyptian Hieroglyphic Typewriter

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Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing, numerals and mathematical problems using the ancient numbers Champollion and the Rosetta stone.